Lift feed ban to lower food prices?

At an emergency meeting of the UN food summit today, Patrick Wall, chairman
of the European Food Safety Authority, suggested that the EU lift the ban on
feeding animal by products to livestock to help lower food
prices.

Grain prices including rice and wheat have risen 83%
in three years, causing riots in countries such as Haiti, Egypt, and Mexico. The
ban began in 1996 after the BSE crisis in Britain which was linked to animal
feed. Professor Wall said that it was now safe to lift the ban.

Concern about consumer reactionThe European Commission is
considering a plan to allow pigs to be fed poultry trimmings and chickens to
be given pig meat to save farmers from buying expensive grain and have asked
for Professor Wall's advice. "Soya meal and other grain prices are going through
the roof. Is it morally and ethically correct to be destroying this food
when people are starving? No one I know is worried about the science. There is
only concern about consumer reaction". he said.

Awaiting formal
adviceA spokesman for Defra said that it was awaiting formal advice
from the European Food Standards Agency. "We would only support the proposal if
we were satisfied that there was no risk to human health and that appropriate
and effective testing had taken place to control the use of such proteins in pig
and poultry feed," it said.